This page consist of
Birthday's and events that happened on March 31. in the 1800's
There is also a page for th 1400's - 1700's
And a page for the 1900's
{{{{{{{{{{Birthdays}}}}}}}}}}
1806 Hale, John Parker --American
lawyer, senator, and reformer who was prominent in the
antislavery movement.
1809 Nikolai Gogol, --father of
19th-century Russian realism (Dead Souls)
1809 Otto Jonas Lindblad, -- composer
1809 FitzGerald, Edward --English writer, best known
for his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which, though it is a free
adaptation and selection from the 12th-century Persian poet's
verses, stands on its own as a classic of English literature.
1811 Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm --German
chemist who, with Gustav Kirchhoff, about 1859 observed that each
element emits a light of characteristic wavelength
1819 Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chlodwig Karl Viktor,
Fürst zu --(prince of) imperial German chancellor
and Prussian prime minister from October 1894 to October 1900,
the "Uncle Chlodwig" whose fatherly relationship with
the emperor
William II did not enable him to prevent his sovereign's
demagogic excesses.
1822 Rafael Hernando, --composer
1823 Doudart de Lagrée, Ernest-Marc-Louis (de Gonzague)
--French explorer and diplomat who secured French
hegemony over Cambodia.
1823 Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich --Russian
dramatist who is generally considered the greatest representative
of the Russian realistic period.
1823 Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller --author of A Diary
from Dixie, an insightful view of Southern life and leadership
during the American Civil War.
1824 Hunt, William Morris --Romantic painter who
created a fashion in the United States for the luminous,
atmospheric painting of the Barbizon school.
1831 Couper, Archibald Scott --Scottish chemist who,
independently of August Kekule, proposed the tetravalency of
carbon and the ability of carbon atoms to bond with one another.
1835 La Farge, John --American painter, muralist,
and stained-glass designer.
1837 Robert Ross McBurney, --1st paid secretary of
the YMCA
1837 Stephen Dodson Ramseur, --Major General
(Confederate Army), died in 1864
1838 L‚on Dierx, --French poet
1839 Przhevalsky, Nikolay Mikhaylovich --Russian
traveler who, by the extent of his explorations, route surveys,
and plant and animal collections, added vastly to geographic
knowledge of east-central Asia.
1840 Baker, Sir Benjamin --English civil engineer
and the chief designer of the railway bridge over the Firth of
Forth, Scotland.
1840 John Herbert Kelly, --Brig General (Confederate
Army), died in 1864
1844 Lang, Andrew --Scottish scholar and
man of letters noted for his collections of fairy tales and
translations of Homer.
(The Blue Fairy Book)
1847 Jarolslaw Zielinski, --composer
1848 John Henry Roberts, --composer
1851 Bell, Sir Francis Henry Dillon --New
Zealand lawyer and statesman who had a leading role in the
Cabinets of Prime Minister William Ferguson Massey (1912-25). He
himself also served for a short time as prime minister of New
Zealand (1925).
1854 Dugald Clerk, --inventor (2-stroke
motorcycle engine)
1854 Clerk, Sir Dugald --British engineer who
invented the two-stroke Clerk cycle internal-combustion engine,
widely used on light motorcycles and other small machines.
1855 Hammond, John Hays --U.S. mining
engineer who helped develop gold mining in South Africa and
California.
1860 Traube, Isidor --German physical
chemist who founded capillary chemistry and whose research on
liquids advanced knowledge of critical temperature, osmosis,
colloids, and surface tension.
1868 Karl Bonhoeffer, --German
psychiatrist/neurologist
1870 Cox, James M(iddleton) --American
newspaper publisher and reformist governor of Ohio who ran
unsuccessfully for U.S. president on the Democratic ticket in
1920.
1872 Griffith, Arthur --journalist and Irish
nationalist, principal founder of the powerful Sinn Féin
("We Ourselves") movement, vice president of the Irish
Republic from Jan. 21, 1919, and its president from Jan. 10,
1922, until his death.
1872 Kollontay, Aleksandra Mikhaylovna --née
Domontovich Russian revolutionary who advocated radical changes
in traditional social customs and institutions in Russia and who
later, as a Soviet diplomat, became the first woman to serve as
an accredited minister to a foreign country.
1872 Diaghilev, Sergey Pavlovich --Russian promoter
of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of
other art forms--music, painting, and drama--with those of the
dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where, in 1909, he founded
the Ballets Russes. Thereafter he toured Europe and the Americas
with his ballet company, and he produced three ballet.
1878 Johnson, Jack first black to hold the
heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
1878 Niven, Frederick John --regional novelist who
wrote more than 30 novels, many of them historical romances, set
in Scotland and Canada. Three of his best-known novels--The
Flying Years (1935), Mine Inheritance (1940), and The
Transplanted (1944)--form a trilogy dealing with the settlement
of the Canadian west.
1882 Chukovsky, Korney Ivanovich --Russian literary
critic, language theorist, translator, and author of children's
books, often called the first modern Russian writer for children.
1885 Jules Pascin, [Julius Pincas], --Bulgarian/US
painter/cartoonist
1887 Jose Maria Usandizaga, --composer
1887 Saint-John Perse, [MRA Alexis L‚ger],
--Fren poet (Nobel 1960) [or 5/31]
1890 Bragg, Sir Lawrence --Australian-born British
physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of the
Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the
determination of crystal structure. He was joint winner (with his
father, Sir
William Bragg) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. He was
knighted in 1941.
1891 Ion Pillat, --Romaniams poet/senator (Umbra
timpului)
1891 Victor Varconi, --Hungary, actor (Divine Lady,
King of Kings, Big City)
1891 Erich Walter Sternberg, --composer
1892 Stanislav Wladyslaw Maczek, --Polish/British
general-major/commandant
1893 Clemens Krauss, --Vienna Austria, conductor
(Berlin State Orch-1937)
1895 Vardis A Fisher, --US author
(Darkness & Deep)
1895 McCloy, John J(ay) --American diplomat and
lawyer. He was an adviser to every U.S. president from Franklin
D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. (Sec of War 1941-45, pres Chase
Man)
[[[[[[[[[[Events]]]]]]]]]]
March 31 18--
1808, French created Kingdom of Westphalia
orders Jews to adopt family names
1814, Forces allied against Napoleon capture
Paris
1831, Mainzer Rijnvaart Convention ends
And also in 1831 Quebec & Montreal
incorporated
1841, 1st performance of Robert Schumann's 1st
Symphony in B
1849, Col John W Geary arrives as 1st postmaster
of SF
1850, US population hits 23,191,876 (Black
population: 3,638,808 (15.7%))
1854, Treaty of Kanagawa: Commodore Perry forces
Japan to opens ports to US
1856, H Goldschmidt discovers asteroid #40
Harmonia (daughter of Mars)
1861, Confederacy takes over mint at New Orleans
1862, Civil War action at Island #10 on
Mississippi River
1863, Battle of Grand Gulf MS & Dinwiddie
Court House VA
1865, Battle of Boydton, VA (White Oaks Roads,
Dinwiddie C H)
And also in 1865, Gen Pickette moves to 5 Forks,
abandoning the defense of Peterburg
1868, Chinese Embassy arrives aboard steamship
China
1870, 1st black to vote in US (Thomas P Mundy of
Perth Amboy NJ)
1877, British high director/governor sir Bartle
Frere arrives in Capetown
And also in 1877 the Test Cricket debut of Fred
"Demon" Spofforth, Aust v Eng MCG
1878, Jack Johnson is 1st black to hold a
heavyweight boxing title
1880, 1st town completely illuminated by
electric lighting (Wabash, IN)
1883, 1st performance of C‚sar Franck's
"Le Chasseur Maudit"
And also in 1883 Utrecht begins water pipe
system
1885, Great Britain declares Bechuanaland a
protectorate
1886, J Palisa discovers asteroids #254 Augusta
& #255 Oppavia
1889, 300m Eiffel Tower officially opens
(commemorates French Revolution)
1891, A Borrelly discovers asteroid #308 Polyxo
1896, Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a
hookless fastening (zipper)
1899, J Coggia discovers asteroid #444 Gyptis